1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a suspend and resume processing method for suspending execution of a task or the like, and then releasing the suspend state, in particular, one for suspending and resuming the states of a plurality of programmed operations.
This application is based on Patent Application No. Hei 11-51988 filed in Japan, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional suspend and resume function provided in a data processing apparatus such as a computer is provided for reducing the time necessary for the operation of initializing the hardware when the power switch is turned on, or for realizing a system in which even if the power is turned off during the execution of a task and then the power is turned on again, the execution environment before the power-off is maintained and the relevant task can be executed from the interrupted step.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, No. Hei 1-279312 relates to the resume function which is generally used in a battery-driven personal computer. Hei 1-279312 has an object of providing a computer system for realizing a resume function also in an AC-power-driven personal computer without a built-in battery. The disclosed computer system comprises (i) RESUME mode setting means for setting/resetting a flag for indicating whether the RESUME mode is used (if the mode is on, then the system state immediately before the power-off can be restored), (ii) a power supply which generates a power-off signal after the power-switch is turned off, so as to stop supplying power after a specific elapsed time or according to a request, (iii) data storage means for detecting the Off state of the power switch, checking the above flag, storing system data in a storage file, and informing the power supply of the stopping of the power supply operation, and (iv) system booting (software) means, loaded in the main memory when the power is turned on, for checking the above flag, wherein if the current mode is the RESUME mode, then the system booting means restores relevant data from the storage file, or else the booting means executes a normal activation operation.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First publication, No. Hei 5-11894 discloses a resume processing method in which when the system is shifted to the suspend mode, the user is informed of the possible resume time in the battery mode, and the user is warned of data backup.
However, the above conventional methods have the problem that the states of a plurality of programmed operations cannot be suspended. This is because in the above conventional techniques, the state of a single programmed operation is suspended and then resumed, and thus the relevant system has only a single memory area for storing the state of a programmed operation.
In consideration of the above problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First publication, No. Hei 10-63362 discloses a method for suspending and resuming the states of a plurality of programmed operations.
The present invention also aims to realize the suspend and resume operation of the states of a plurality of programmed operations or tasks (i.e., the programmed states), and to provide a method for enabling the user to much more easily and efficiently obtain the desired program environment. That is, an objective of the present invention is to provide a system processing function of suspending and resuming a plurality of programmed states, and to provide a method for displaying a list of the programmed states so that the user can easily select a suspended task to be resumed.
Therefore, the present invention provides a suspend and resume processing method for performing suspend and resume operations by using a data processing apparatus including a power management signal detecting section, a pushed key detecting and storage area selecting section, a save and load processing section, and a counting section; and a storage device including a plurality of storage areas for storing a plurality of hardware execution states of programmed operations, and a look-up table for storing data of information on each program task which has been suspended, wherein the information includes a task name of a target task, a key code of a key designated by a user in the suspend operation, a target storage area for the task, and the number of resume operations of the task, and wherein:
in the suspend operation in which a target hardware execution state of a program task, corresponding to a key code designated by the user, is suspended, said method comprises:
a signal detecting step, executed by the power management signal detecting section, of detecting a power management signal generated according to a user operation;
a key detecting and storage area selecting step, executed by the pushed key detecting and storage area selecting section, of recognizing the key code designated by the user; determining one of the storage areas in which the hardware execution state of the program task to be suspended is stored; and storing the data of information on the relevant program task in the look-up table; and
a data saving step, executed by the save and load processing section, of saving data of the target hardware execution state in the determined storage area, and
in the resume operation in which a program task which has been suspended is resumed, said method comprises:
a signal detecting step, executed by the power management signal detecting section, of detecting a power management signal generated according to a user operation;
a data displaying and task determining step, executed by the pushed key detecting and storage area selecting section, of displaying the data of the look-up table on a display; and determining the task name of a program task to be resumed by detecting data input by the user;
a data loading step, executed by the save and load processing section, of loading data of the target hardware execution state of the determined program task from the relevant storage area; and
a counting step, executed by the counting section, of counting the number of resume operations with respect to the determined program task, and updating the data of information on the number of resume operations in the look-up table.
Accordingly, a plurality of execution states of program tasks can be suspended and resumed. Typically, in the data displaying and task determining step of the resume operation, a list of the data related to the hardware execution states of the program tasks stored in the look-up table is displayed on the display. In this case, the user can easily select a target program task to be resumed.
Preferably, the counting step of the resume operation further comprises arranging the data of the look-up table in a manner such that data are listed in said list in order of the number of resume operations. Accordingly, program tasks which were much more frequently resumed are displayed first, so that the user can much more easily perform the task selecting operation.